A plant and a method in which used tires are broken into small particles at a substantially reduced temperature, is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 21 45 728 corresponding to U.S. Ser. No. 71,896, filed Sept. 14, 1970, now abandoned and assigned to the Union Carbide Corp. This prior art plant, and its method operates relatively inefficiently, since the processing of the used tires into rubber granulates, produces only about a 28% yield from tires of passenger vehicles, the remainder being cord fibers and scrap steel, and require a disproportionate consumption of energy for its reduction. The usuable products of separation in the form of the cord fibers and the scrap steel; to which adheres relatively large amounts of rubber, together contain large amounts of combustible materials. The remaining component parts, in the prior art, must be delivered to and disposed of in scrap yards which involves transportation costs and scrap yard storage fees.